 Poster: A snowHead
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Dear “Snowheads”,
I'm writing on behalf of a new app launching in 2015 called Maroon. We are currently looking for beta testers and think your club members would be suitable.
The app is designed for sporting activities, particularly those which can be done alone and along secluded routes, such as cycling, running, skiing, horse riding and snowboarding to name a few. You simply set your activity, route and expected duration, and if you do not tell the app that you have completed your activity safely, an emergency alert will be sent to designated contacts.
There are several examples of when this app can come in handy, here’s one we have thought of:
A man is going down a ski trail and falls over and falls unconscious. There’s no one else on the trail that day. If he didn't leave a note with the likely routes and times then no-one will find him before hypothermia sets in. If he had Maroon, he would never have to worry about this.
For more information, please visit our website at www.maroonapps.com
It would be great if you could spread the message that we are looking for testers to iron out any issues and take feedback on the positives and negatives.
If any of your members are interested in taking part, all they need to do is email esugden[at]nms-adaptive.com with the subject “Maroon App Testing”.
If you have any questions, please get in touch. At this stage, the app is only available for iPhone users.
Thanks,
Pedro
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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This is a very good idea. I am sure there are a number of products out there already in the commercial/ industrial sector - I looked at a number of these in the mid 2000s for lone workers,
Unfortunately not an iPhone user though
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Sounds like a good idea, you had me until Iphone.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Sign me up to beta test the android version when you do it, I must be one of the few people with a Sony Xperia Go.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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ok. I have a problem.
MaroonApp works on having a data signal to check you into your dangerous solo activity, and then check you back out again. The first thing I normally do when landing in a foreign country is turn off data roaming as it costs an arm and a leg. So I'd have to set my checkpoints in and out significantly in advance of taking part in my activity, leading to false-positive alerts or a potentially long delay between incident and alert.
I understand why you're doing it this way but it's a barrier to using the service, and the subscription fee element is something I suspect a lot of people would walk away from...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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When you're abroad you could use hotel WiFi of maybe a cafe with WiFi if you're near civilisation, if not then you're right that could be an issue we'll take it to the developer and let me know to see if there's anyway we can work around it. If you had any ideas we would love to hear them!
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@MaroonApp, personally, text in - text out. The text acts like a note on a digital corkboard you'd have on a mountain. You set a check-in time in the message and if you don't check-in by that time, Maroon sends an "Are you OK?" message - no reply in 5 minutes then a wider alert to the area you were in / your alert list. Its a marginal, penny-cost, to the sender. You're more likely to have a SMS capable signal than a data signal anyway so you're more likely to get the message. Your app development costs are minimal as you're essentially just skinning an SMS client with a form, hell you don't really even need a smartphone - most people I know who find themselves in very low signal areas normally use old Ericsson or Nokia phones as a backup as you could get a signal on those anywhere. Your back end is simple too, SMS gateway, and a DB, anything else is gravy or window dressing. And your best route to market might be to sell the service to various mountain operators as an additional safety service.
When you're a dot.com millionaire, you can buy me a beer.
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